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ON CAMPUS
Photo: Peter Bennetts
Shine by design
The proliferation of online learning platforms, more discerning students and fierce competition for academic talent have prompted universities around the world to invest in something that may be considered a little‘ last century’ – the bricks-and-mortar campus.
Now more than ever, clever design of a university’ s built environment can help attract and retain the best students and staff by creating a standout campus experience.
It’ s also delivering notable teaching, learning and discovery outcomes, while creating new opportunities for commercial partnership.
Naturally, each campus must respond to its local context and the needs of its specific population. However, global trends in teaching and learning, developments in research and new technology are influencing the expectations people place on the campus and, therefore, reshaping many higher education spaces.
Establishing an exciting and engaging campus experience is critical. University campuses need to provide the amenities, services and social opportunities that make the campus so vibrant and appealing that students want to be there, even on non-contact days.
The campus must become more than just a convenient collection of buildings for learning and research. The spaces between the buildings, where people relax, bump into each other and socialise, are just as important. Universities must also look beyond the campus boundaries to connect more meaningfully to the surrounding city or town – embedding the campus as a vital component of local life.
The need to provide appealing experiences for students is putting campus planning back into the spotlight.
By Lucy O’ Driscoll and Oliver Kampshoff
A good example of these objectives is the master plan for The University of Brighton in the UK, which unites the university’ s five campuses and enhances the individual strengths of each site, while supporting a more vibrant and connected campus. A long-term program of upgrade and rejuvenation for the campus has been established, accompanied by a number of short-term measures designed to breathe in fresh life and create a more immediate sense of vibrancy, community and connection with the town.
At many universities, the spaces within buildings are being transformed with diverse settings for student learning. At the Collaborative Futures learning facility at the University of the Sunshine Coast, more than 35 per cent of the building’ s space is dedicated to informal learning environments. These areas sit between formal spaces and include attractive, comfortable settings that support and foster individual and group work, spontaneous learning and collaboration, as well as simply socialising and relaxing.
This approach has been successful in encouraging students to remain on campus and optimise peer-to-peer learning and social engagement – an appealing alternative to studying at home alone.
Similarly, formal learning spaces are being transformed to support changes in curriculum and teaching methods, moving away from the‘ sage on stage’ approach to more of the‘ meddler in the middle’. This is important to continue attracting talented staff and students, but also to maximise the use of available space.
Didactic teaching with static furniture in rows is being replaced by open teaching spaces with moveable chairs and group tables. Learning spaces must also be technology-enabled to rapidly share, transfer and project content, readily linking to the devices students now have at their disposal.
Also increasingly important is ensuring a building can physically respond to future needs, particularly given the level of investment. The Flinders at Tonsley School of Computer Sciences Engineering and Mathematics in South Australia provides flexible floor plates to support everything from learning studios and labs to interdisciplinary research clusters with industry / start-up modules. This in-built flexibility increases the lifespan of the building, while delivering a sustainable long-term asset for the university.
Another challenge with the design of higher education spaces – particularly for vocational subjects – is giving access to real-world experience. This approach develops problembased enquiry and skills in the laboratory.
The design of spaces for such lessons requires labs that can accommodate diverse group sizes and needs while also providing students with safe informal access. The Advanced Engineering Building at the University of Queensland includes computer-intensive studios, practice-based collaborative spaces, research labs and large engineering test platforms for just such hands-on working.
In coming years, the university campus will become ever-more agile to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research and engagement with industry. Office and lab environments will need to be agile, flexible and adaptable to the dynamic teaming these collaborative projects require.
We are already seeing the shift in mind-set of the sector, from dedicated spaces for individual departments to sharing and co-management to encourage more collaboration and partnership.
The result of all these advances should be better facilities that allow people to explore and achieve their full potential. A dynamic, vibrant and engaging university campus also delivers a better experience for students and staff, ultimately securing a more sustainable and successful future for the higher education sector. ■
Lucy O’ Driscoll and Oliver Kampshoff are principals at HASSELL.
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